


all that is solid melts into air

by SugarFey



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 10:31:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14591100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarFey/pseuds/SugarFey
Summary: They were supposed to follow. He swore they would. He swore he would.She has been alone before.





	all that is solid melts into air

**Author's Note:**

> As the tags suggest, this fic contains a major spoiler about the Asgardians in Avengers: Infinity War.
> 
> I couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened to Valkyrie, so this is my take on it.

The remaining escape pods are supposed to follow her coordinates. The people crowding the Commodore and the small number of pods are the ones most in need of saving, the children, the sick, three pregnant women. They are defenceless. Any able-bodied adults were to follow once the Commodore had escaped. 

She sends out the beacon again and again, beaming it across the stars. 

_We’re here. We’re here. Where are you? Where—  
_

_Are—  
_

They were supposed to follow. He swore they would. He swore _he_ would. 

The Grandmaster’s fruit liqueur coats her tongue with soapy sweetness as she swallows. Faint synthesised music tinkles through the speakers she turned on to give herself some privacy. Bruce, the man who is—was?—the Hulk, cornered her once in the mess hall and told her all about a piece of Midgardian music that had been composed in honour of the legendary Valkyries. “You’ll love it, really,” he insisted, searching up the music on a tablet. It was indeed appropriately bombastic with the stirring horns and wild strings, if a little overblown. The Valkyries of legend… some legend they had all turned out to be. 

But then, according to the legends a warrior in her position should be swearing revenge and burning with the righteous fury of the bereaved. Instead, she only feels numb and very, very cold.

_“Go,”_ he had called to her. _“Go, take everyone you can!”_

And though he has never truly been her King, and she has never been his subject, she had obeyed. 

Her silver armour chafes against her skin like some cruel joke. Thor had offered it to her so openly, knowing what it must have meant, and she accepted, though she knew that to don that armour again would mean throwing herself into battle for a throne and a people she had long since abandoned. 

_“Thank you,”_ he said to her, in a quiet moment in a corridor when they believed their people were finally safe. Then later, in his quarters, whispered against her skin. _“Thank you.”_

The trust between Thor and herself is still soft and newly born, too fragile yet for more. But a Valkyrie should not survive her King.

She can stare at the empty sky for hours. She could be staring at the empty sky for days. Time is a useless measurement for loss, and she can’t say how long it’s been when a heavy footfall shocks her thoughts. 

“I should’ve stayed,” she says, the first words to cross her lips since she was shouting evacuation orders over the panic and the chaos on the Statesman. “I should have fought until everyone could escape.” 

Korg’s voice is self-effacing even by his standards. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying, but…” He shrugs in a grinding of rock. “Someone needed to fly this thing.” 

He is right, of course. The ease of travelling by Bifrost ensures that piloting long-range space vessels remains an uncommon skill on Asgard. Another thing taken for granted. A nation that produced some of the greatest warriors and craftspeople in the universe, and what is she left with? Actors, musicians and farmers’ sons, all exhausted and afraid. 

The fall of the Valkyries left her bitter, angry and alone, a perfect recipe for self-destruction. She is not alone this time, cannot be alone, even if her King and her sisters call to her. 

A final sip before she puts the bottle down.

“We’ll set a course for the nearest planet. Find all the injured and set up a space for their care. Tell anyone with flight experience to report to me. We’re alive. Let’s make it stay that way.” 

The comm link is still warm beneath her hand. 

_We’re here.  
_

_We’re here.  
_

_We’re here._

 

 


End file.
